The capture of the small town of Kreminna marked the start of Russia’s anticipated major offensive into Donbas in eastern Ukraine, with fighting raging in the nearby town of Rubizhne.
Moscow redirected its campaign to this mining area in eastern Ukraine, the new epicenter of the conflict after the withdrawal of Russian forces from the north and around kyiv.
The city of Kreminna is located on the banks of the Donets River, whose flow runs towards Rubizhne, Severodonetsk and Lysychansk, located on the front line and the target of heavy bombardment from both sides.
Rubizhne, with more than 60,000 residents before the war, has come under heavy artillery and mortar fire from Ukrainian forces in the area since Monday, particularly from the nearby town of Novodruzhesk, according to local media.
The powerful explosions could be seen and heard from a dump near this mining town, from which columns of black and white smoke emanated.
Machine gun fire could also be heard sporadically.
With just 18,000 inhabitants before the conflict, Kreminna was taken by Russian forces on the night of Sunday to Monday after three days of fighting.
Russian advance
This leaves the Kremlin army just 50 km northeast of Kramatorsk, the de facto capital of the kyiv-controlled area of Donbas and a key target of Moscow.
This mining basin in eastern Ukraine, where the Luhansk and Donetsk regions are located, was partially controlled by pro-Russian separatists since 2014, when a war began between these rebels and the kyiv government.
The fighting lasted three days and Russia used a large number of armored vehicles to attack the city," the head of the Kreminna military administration, Oleksandr Dunets, told Radio Donbas.The Ukrainian forces withdrew to new positions, commented the governor of the Lugansk region, Sergei Gaidai, accusing the Russian forces of killing four civilians who tried to flee with their car from that small city.
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